Author: Rae

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No Trouble Keeping Busy

I didn’t have much planned for today, just a bit of laundry and finishing up my flier routes for the week.

Well…

I woke up to find out my bid for an interesting contract was accepted! It’s a 500 page document that is putting my translation, proofreading, and coding skills to the test. I have to deliver the final product on Monday. It’s going to be a busy weekend!

Before starting on that, I did two flier routes. Doing the fliers is now a joy. My body has adapted to the exercise, I’ve mastered the most efficient way to do them, and except for one day I’ve always had perfect weather to do them. The money is such a joke, but I really am being paid to get some fresh air and exercise so doing them is most definitely worth my time.

I came back in for lunch and to start the laundry. I decided that I might as well do a marathon day of it and do ALL my bedding, towels, and clothes. I stopped counting loads at six… I worked on my project between loads and when the end of the laundry was in sight I headed out to do the last of my flier routes.

It was almost five when I came back in so I switched over some laundry and then made a nice dinner with the last of the salmon I bought in Oregon! YUM. The laundry was all done by the time I finished dinner so I decided to burn a few more calories by making the beds.

The bed in the back was cat-free, so I started on it. Of course, by the time I’d laid the bottom sheet down I suddenly had two cats to contend with. They weren’t happy when I made them move so I could add the covers, but I finally got it done. They flopped down as though they’d been the ones running around like mad all day so I figured I’d be able to do the loft bed in peace. HA. I’d no sooner gotten the sheets in place than Neelix was insisting on helping me!

By the time the laundry was dealt with and the dinner dishes done, I decided I’d earned an ice cream so I went to the convenience store across the street to get one!

I think I’ll put in a couple more hours of work before curling up with the novel I started the other night. Might as well get a head start on the mammoth project; I suspect it’s going to be a race to the finish line!

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A New Addition to the Family

I mentioned to Jody the other day that I wanted to try my hand at keeping houseplants on board, most specifically aloe vera since it’s a good air scrubber and it also has medicinal value. Lo and behold, Jody had an aloe vera plant to give away!

It’s hard keeping plants around my cats, so I’m hoping the aloe vera is getting enough sunlight from the dressing room skylights. If I think it’s doing poorly, I’ll try to hang it from an overhead cabinet in the library by a window.

When it comes time to repot the plant, I’ll pick something that fits into my decor a little more. 😉

And hopefully I won’t have any trouble crossing the border with this plant!

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The Deed is Done

I think that only an RVer can appreciate how much work is needed to pull out of a spot just to go dump. I was completely packed up, unplugged, and fed by 5:30. Jody had said she’d arrive ‘sometime after six’ so I curled up in the back with a novel and my two kitties to wait. She arrived around 6:15 and with very little fanfare helped me out of my spot. I then headed downtown on nearly clear roads. I love driving the rig by itself!

The dump station at the Chinkook Travel Centre was super easy to get into. It’s not a bad setup, but their dumps are about three inches off the ground so waste can back up the hose which was to be an issue…

I went into the rig to flush with clean water, misjudged my angle of approach with the jug, and ended up having to mop up two inches of clean water off the toilet room floor. But at least the black tank was empty! And my floor is clean!

I then went out to flush the grey. Before I could do that, I somehow dislodged the hose from the piece that screws onto the motorhome and, wham, I had a small mess on my hands because the hose was still full, and no hose handy for rinsing except for my white one! I decided to deal with the sewer hose first, screwing it back onto the connector properly, and then I spent about five minutes guiding the contents down towards the dump. Once the hose was empty I pulled on the grey valve to flush and that happened uneventfully. This was by far the worst dump I’ve done since Kapuskasing!

Thanking my lucky stars that I had no witnesses (at least, I hope), I moved the rig ahead away from the mess and spent about ten minutes washing the pad clean with gallon after gallon of fresh water. Satisfied that all was good, I packed up and headed back to Jody and Gary’s arriving around 7:30. I’d been gone only an hour!

Jody and I had a little snack and gab while waiting for Gary to come home. When he did, he wasted no time getting me settled back in. Since we wanted Miranda in the exact spot I was in two hours previously and there were tire ruts to guide us it was very easy to get me back in. We set up my porch and then I reconnected everything.

Neelix was unimpressed by this exercise. Soon as we pulled in front of the house to park and wait for Gary he did his little “Mom!” meow as though to say “Wait, we were just here!” Tabitha seems to have napped during the whole event, though.

Well, it’s been a day I’ve been dreading, but it’s done and I know I won’t have to do this again for another six weeks!

By which point I plan to have mortgaged the rig to buy a macerator pump… 😀

 

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Simplicity Can Be More Complicated

We’ve come to the time of year when I start to crave iced coffee. I usually just cold brew my own since coffee shops charge a lot more for the cold variety than they do the hot. But McDonald’s is having a promotion right now for any size of cold beverage at $1, including their oh-so-delicious iced coffee.

Regardless of which McDonald’s I go to and where, the following conversation, almost verbatim, ensues every single time. This wouldn’t be worth a post if it didn’t always happen!

Me: Hi, I’d like a (size) plain iced coffee, no syrup, half the cream.

McDonalds: What kind of iced coffee?

Me: Plain. No syrup, half the cream.

McDonalds: You just want cold coffee and cream?

Me: Yes. Cold coffee and half the cream.

McDonalds: Sugar?

Me: No, thank you. Just cold coffee and half the cream.

The cashier then takes my order, still looking puzzled, and goes to the person who makes the iced coffee.

Cashier: Can you make me an iced coffee, no syrup, half the cream?

Coffee maker: No syrup, half the cream? Just cold coffee with cream?

Cashier: That’s what she wants.

Coffee maker (to me): What kind of iced coffee do you want?

Me: Plain. No syrup. Just cold coffee and half the cream.

Coffee maker: (makes my drink at last!) Sugar?

Me: No, thank you, that’s perfect!

It boggles me, really, since they have no problem with my order for hot coffee with half a cream. I think the cold coffee is seen as being a dessert more than a beverage. There’s no other way to explain it!

I’ll be making my own again soon enough, with skim milk instead of cream, and lots of cinnamon, but in the mean time, it’s fun to confound people. 😀

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Preparing to Pull Out

Well, the dreaded day has arrived: I have to pull out to go dump. Yuck! A macerator has suddenly become a priority, especially since the dump station is 20km round trip!

Jody should be available around 6PM to help me pull out and then both she and Gary should be there around 8PM to help guide me back in. Having help is going to reduce the stress of this a lot. There is plenty of room to manoeuvre, but also lots of opportunity for hitting something. Gary and Jody are RVers themselves and are excellent guides. I’ve had times going into tight spots where no help was better than the help available, but this is not the case here!

I was a bit surprised to discover last night that my gas tank was almost empty! I try to never park with less than a quarter tank of gas, but I guess that all the excitement of arrival day made me forget to check the fuel gauge before parking! Instead of adding a trip to a gas station to tonight’s itinerary I simply added 20L of fuel from a jerry can, which brought me up to nearly a quarter full, so I could easily do 150km. The only gas station on this side of Lethbridge that has sufficient clearance for Miranda would be nightmare to get in and out of, so doing the jerry can thing really made the most sense. I can get a bit more fuel on the other side of town where there will be more options.

I was also going to fill the on board propane tank but decided against it since doing so would double my trip and my 30lber is nowhere near empty. 40km round trip in a motorhome is A LOT of fuel! I have to say that for a city this size, Lethbridge is very propane unfriendly.

Well, I’d better finish packing…